Intuitive Machines’ uncrewed “Odysseus” lander is set to attempt the first lunar landing by an American spacecraft in over 50 years on Thursday, concluding a week-long journey to the moon after being launched aboard a SpaceX rocket.
This image provided by Intuitive Machines shows its Odysseus lunar lander with the Earth in the ... [+]
The Nova-C class lander is set to land at the lunar South Pole Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to NASA.
NASA plans to begin coverage at 4 p.m. and will broadcast the landing across multiple platforms, including YouTube, NASA’s free streaming service NASA+, NASA TV (which can be streamed on the NASA app and on YouTube) and the agency’s app, website and social media platforms.
The agency says it will host a news conference alongside Intuitive Machines upon a successful launch—as of yesterday, Intuitive Machines reported that Odysseus remains “in excellent health.”
The spacecraft, which Intuitive Machines says is about the size of a phone booth, is carrying six scientific payloads from NASA—pieces of technology that will enable NASA to conduct a variety of experiments—and six commercial payloads, including a collection of Jeff Koons sculptures.
If successful, the landing will also mark the first-ever soft landing on the moon by a private company.
“We’re very excited, but we’re also very nervous,” said Jack Burns, a University of Colorado professor who’s affiliated with one of the NASA payloads, told Space.com. “The success has been mixed in going to the surface of the moon.”
The last American vessel to land on the moon was Apollo 17, which brought three people to the moon in 1972. NASA’s Apollo missions remain the only times that human beings have stepped foot on the moon. China was the first to put a lunar rover on the far side of the moon in 2019 and more recently, Japan landed a vessel on the moon earlier this year and India landed near the moon’s south pole last year. Intuitive Machines will attempt to break a streak of failures from private companies that have tried to touch down in recent months—most recently, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology announced its Peregrine lander malfunctioned on its way to the moon and ultimately burned up during re-entry. The private efforts are the result of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which partners with private companies to deliver NASA payloads to the moon.